Steemit Enterprise Ad Platform: A solution to vote bot abuse
TLDR: I'm launching Steemrush.com an enterprise marketing platform for Steemit. I've love to get some feedback on the project.
Steemit is awesome! ... Steemit is wack?!
As a developer that's new to Steemit (just started in January) I was immediately attracted to the openness and all the technical innovations that is happening. D.tube, D.live, SMT etc.
Of course, it's also obvious that Steemit is experiencing a lot of growing pains. Even as a new user, I was made very aware of the crazy Steemit dramas. Flag wars between whales, self voting rings, vote bot abuse, projects that are targeted to siphon traffic from Steemit etc.
I can definitely see why some new users are turned off as the Steemit front page just seems like a circle jerk for whales.
However, I've had some experiences with startups and these are all normal solvable issues.
A Market driven solution to vote bot abuse
The vote bot market was a crazy one to me. At first, I thought it was undermining the integrity of the curation process as whales just sell their power to the highest bidder. Soon I came to realize that it's an inevitable result of a distributed system like Steemit. It's a legit way to implement an advertising market and it's probably not going anywhere. The issue arise from the supply and demand of the market. Right now Steemit does not have any large ad buy, Steemit does have an enterprise ad sales team like Facebook or Google and so there's a lot of supply of SP and not enough buyers. This leads to extremely cheap marketing costs, sometimes it was even possible to promote a random post and make a return out of it. THAT IS CRAAAZY!!
YOU SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE MONEY FROM PROMOTING A RANDOM POST!
In a healthy market, there will be enough ad buyers that the price per vote is way out of reach for spammers. The problem is that there are no corporate ad buyers currently on the Steemit platform. Steemit needs ad buyers that have real budgets, not just your average Joe blogger who doesn't have product or a way to monetize those views besides trying to game their way up in hopes of being a whale.
Benefits to the community
Right now some people might be thinking... promoted posts? That sounds pretty lame... Well, I think Steemit's incentive structure actually is one of the bests at handling promoted posts. It's one of the few platforms that encourages advertisers to actually create real engaging content. Poor content will get down voted and costs to promote those content will sky rocket. Where as great content will see significantly lower marketing costs.
If we can capture real enterprise buyers, the likes of Microsoft, JP Morgan, or Samsung, it will add a lot of legitimacy and I think it will really provide confidence to investors and significantly boost the price of Steem. Not to mention the direct purchases of tens of thousands of dollars of Steem that these brands will have to purchase to run their campaign.
On the flip side, by not engaging with enterprise partners Steemit is leaving millions on the table. As the platform grows and Steemit's own expenditure grows it's more and more important to capture that primary source of income.
At the end of the day, if we can find a way to co-exist and engage with large brands, everyone in the community will benefit.
Attracting Enterprise Partners
To get those corporate ad buyers there needs to be a conscious effort and probably a sales team. Steemit as a platform also needs to do a lot of development to significantly lower the barrier for entry and add management capabilities that enterprise ad buyers are used to. Need a good example of an enterprise ad platform, just look at Facebook's ad program.
Yes, it's a lot of work... but we should give it a try.
Introducing SteemRush.com an enterprise marketing platform for Steemit
It's currently live and ready to sign up customers. I'll be using my network to try to get some sales calls and get in front of some marketing managers in Microsoft and TD bank.
I would also love to hear the feedback from the community and how we want to approach the topic of monetizing Steemit's large and growing audience.
Here are some the design concepts that I'm working on for the ad management app. The goal is to help automate and simplify the bidding and promo process, enable basic management features like post scheduling and conversion rate tracking.
The Dashboard: analytics overview
Post Scheduling: queue up a pipeline of posts
As a developer, these issues are just things waiting to be fixed and I'd love to help out in some way.
First, a bit about me. I'm based in Vancouver.
My past project includes:
- www.visualcv.com - a resume builder with over 2 million users, and the top resume app on Android
- www.meta.re - a news aggregator that uses social media data to rank the most influential articles
- www.pushtable.com - a headless content management system (CMS) for Firebase with AirTable / Excel like user interface
I am so absolutely floored by this post that I'm not even sure where to begin! Never before have I read a post that so exactly mirrored my own thoughts and ideas and, as someone who deals primarily with content promotion on Steem, I have a lot of thoughts and ideas on the matter!
This project, if successful, could single-handedly drive up the value and price of STEEM.
STEEM is primarily a utility token, however, like every other utility token hardly anyone actually buys it for its utility. The price of the token is completely driven by speculation and the fact that we're in a cryptocurrency craze.
The utility of the STEEM token is, very simply, promoting posts on websites built on top of the Steem platform. SteemIt.com could bring in tens of millions of dollars a year in advertising revenue based on its current size and usage (there's sites where you can look this up).
The reason it doesn't do that is again because the price of STEEM is being driven up by speculation so it doesn't need any actual revenue coming in. I think most of us take that for granted, but it may not last forever - or even for much longer.
If actual corporations (or "enterprise partners" as @zthomas puts it here) were buying millions of dollars worth of STEEM each year to advertise on the platform, then STEEM would be the first utility token to actually be used for its utility in any meaningful way.
I believe that the entire cryptocurrency community, and perhaps even more than that, is just waiting to see when or if these things will actually start to have a real-world use. If STEEM can be the first to do it in a meaningful way it will skyrocket the valuation of the token.
I believe that is very possible, and what is missing is a project like this. Once something like this is built, then the entire Steem community should become the salespeople for it. The more money we bring in to USE Steem for its actual purpose the more the price will rise, benefitting us all.
My hats off to you @zthomas! This post deserves to be at the top of the trending page in my opinion. I've bought a nice upvote for it from a voting bot and I will share it and encourage everyone to upvote it.
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you make this project a reality!
Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate the support. I posted this a few days ago and didn't get much traction at all. So votes from you and @jerrybanfield really means a lot to me.
To address some of the issues from the comments, mostly regarding the negatives of advertising. I completely agree and understand where you guys are coming from and as I mentioned, I'm trying to create a new type of marketing product for Steem that works with the community. I'm not going to pretend that I know exactly what that will look like yet but I'm hoping I can help brands to create real engaging content on platform. It should be a win-win for both the brand and the community.
Also I'm being very selective with who I'm targeting for sales, so strictly enterprise fortune 500 companies. Because of the way that Steemit and other Steem apps are structured, there's not actually a lot of room for a ton of ad buyers in the traditional sense. I estimate it's probably not even capable at servicing half a dozen large clients. I think Steemit need to add better notification, ability to follow tags etc to really enable more targeting to support more customers.
Additionally, I'm sure it's a lot easier to sell marketing services to ICO companies right now but I'll avoid that completely as I don't think it proves much and won't helps the price of Steem or the community.
I want to stress that I'll only be going after a handful of suitable large clients with very hand on sales cycles.
I want companies to promote real engaging posts that they already are creating through their existing campaigns. For example, I met with Google's Firebase dev team for Pushtable.com, I would love Google to promote a video series on d.tube to teach serverless development with Firebase's new hosting feature etc. Maybe Microsoft could do a tour of their office and promote some recruitment content etc. I think ultimately ads should as close to real content as possible. We are just so used to shitty ads that we instantly have negative emotions about anything related to ads / marketing, but as I mentioned I think Steem can change this.
@yabapmatt, Thanks for the PM I'll follow up with you guys in the chat rooms.
Wow! So amazed to see this direction, definitely this is the direction community should think and evolve. This will open up so many possibilities and future growth in wast number of opportunities.
I am with you and definitely help in getting word out.
Amazing plan resteem it
However good an idea is, it comes at a cost of income taxation by its implementer.
Not taxation on profits.
Taxation on rewards regardless of their cost.
And it also comes at a risk of sharing posting key/active key.
This comment has received a 90.91 % upvote from @steemdiffuser thanks to: @stimialiti. Steem on my friend!
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KaBOOM 100% upvote! Excellent post. Way to offer valuable free market solutions instead of behaving like a narcistic blockchain justice warrior. Let this be an example to our community that building > complaining. Keep BOOMIN over here!
One question I have - it looks like you are changing flat USD per month charges. How will you deal with changing STEEM prices? Also, what happens if the customer’s posts get downvoted?
I charge Fiat, but I'll take crypto if they want to offer it, though I doubt any of my potential clients will want to pay in crypto right now. Because it's a monthly subscription, I'll help them dollar cost average into purchasing steem and spending it. The price of STEEM shouldn't affect their ability to promote much at all. They'll be spending it right away on promotional efforts.
With regards to downvoting, remember that I'm only targeting a few large customers so it's very hands on. I'll be actively advising them on what type of content will do well. Essentially I'll be their Steem social media manager... for the time being...
That sounds cool. Can you walk me through what a typical experience would be like? Let’s say I go with the $500/month plan. What exactly does that get me? What would I expect to see?
Sure, so a $500 plan would basically get a single promoted post per month marketed on Steemit or D.tube (depending on the type of content) and we'll manage the posting, promoting (vote buying or bot bidding) that's needed. Depending on how well the post was voted by the community your rewards for the post will vary. At the end of the week when the rewards are paid out, you can recycle those funds into the promotional budget of the next promoted post. Of course $500 per month is a minimum and you can feel free to add any amount at anytime to optimize your investment.
Ok, cool :)
what % of the upfront $500 do you expect will be used to get the post on the front page? Also, wouldn't placing it on the front of a relevant page be more enticing (assuming ppl can follow tags)? I rarely go to the front page of Steemit.com.
also, how many posts/month does the $500 subscription include? If only 1 post, then it would need to make upwards of $650 to cover the cost of the subscription + 20% beneficiary fee on the post, right? That's break even. My math must be wrong.
@zthomas
@zthomas I love this project and will provide a vote initially for more visibility! A few feedback items that might help!
First, the blockchain and branding ideally will be optimized around Steem because steemit is just one interface for the blockchain maintained by Steemit Inc. which is a company in the USA. You might switch the logo to the blue Steem logo and name it Steem Marketing instead of steemit. I recommend editing the tag steemit to Steem also.
Second, I love that the website is live and explains what it does. It might help to have flexible budgets and maybe just custom quotes instead of fixed prices because the prices and keeping rewards confused me. Maybe screenshots showing promoted posts and case studies of number of views.
I think the absolute ideal market for this platform is ICOs which with Google and Facebook ads banned will be looking for a place to promote. Make it easy to promote ICOs through this and you have an incredible system!
I will be resteeming this and doing an upvote with my bot from @budgets to help promote this post!
Yeah you're right! There should be lots of ICOs out there waiting to promote their projects, this just convinced me that this platform is gonna be huge!
Thanks for the support Jerry, it really means a lot. I'll definitely have to rework the branding a bit more. Right now it's just something I threw up quickly.
I agree ICO is a hot market and probably a lot easier to tackle. However, I'm going to avoid ICO advertising for now. I think Steemit has quite a bit of that going on already lol
What I would like to see is large clients and brand that would actually prove something to Steem. For example, I know some people in the Vancouver Microsoft office, if I can get them to do a campaign to promote Azure tutorial or intro content then it would be a huge win and a real progress. I think the biggest benefit would be to get a press release that Steem has Microsoft as an ad partner etc. Fow now, the actual money that they spend is probably a lot less meaningful to the ecosystem than the PR that it brings.
I think rebranding is mostly important due to Steemit being trademarked but Steem being not. Great project and idea! I will likely contact you soon to get involved.
This is doomed to fail and for many reason:
Steemit is not a social media site (and is not made for consumers).
This is a blogging platform for content creators. This is an elite network at it's core.
Mass market adaption simply won't happen, because 95% are consumers and they won't earn a dime here. Some will try, but they will be gone as soon as they realize that fact.
For the 5% content creators, Steemit is the exact counter-model to advertisement.
They are here, because they believe, that there are other reward models possible than advertisement. Otherwise, they would have stayed at YouTube or Facebook.
On the company side, big corps are lightyears away from implementing blockchain ideas and decentralization. Again, this is against their very structure - besides the fact, that these corps would need a consumer audience, that they won't get here.
You should not spend your time with something, that has no valid chance to succeed.
Case closed.
This is a reasonable response. The contrast between creators and consumers has been problematic for me as well as I approach steemit. If you're here, it's because you have content that you want to be rewarded for. You're here to make money. I mean, that's the bottom line. Sure, if you can make money and also form a community and spread ideas - that's all gravy. But people will be attracted to coming here because they can make money (in some form) from their content.
But if everyone's here focused on the success of their own content, it's hard to incentivize the consumption of others' content. Of course some exceptional creators will rise to the top. But many will be disappointed because they are not the ones rising, and they will leave or become less active. And this means fewer people are participating in the community.
The question really becomes: how does steemit become valuable to content-consumers? In order for content-creators to be truly successful, they need to have consumers. A lack of consumers means creators will also fail.
Anyway, that's my take.
I think, besides what @joanaltres has said in the comment below about SMTs being the consumer friendly versions on the Steem blockchain, that we have basically two options where to take the Steemit app.
One would be to incentivize other uses and values than the monetary one (I have written about this 2 weeks ago here).
The other option is, to focus on the 5% content creators, who will also comment and interact with other creators and therefore also being consumers.
I kind of feel it just has to reach a certain critical mass to attract more casual consumers. For instance, I joined Instagram and have never made a post. It was entirely to follow a few artists who posted content almost exclusively on Instagram.
When more, and more prominent content creators embrace Steem, their fan bases will come along. They’ll begin using Steem like any other site, for entertainment, with the chance of having a comment or post rewarded as an extra bonus. People love when their favorite celebrities or artists engage with them on Twitter, or retweet them to a legion of fans. Add in the possibility of an occasional monetary windfall from viral content and Steem beats any legacy social media in every way... as long as the people are here.
Heh, maybe it's just me. The only reason I joined Instagram was to promote my project. I have no real interest in scrolling through it for other people's pics. :) And I haven't logged in there for months.
Ha! Pretty funny how it’s almost opposite for me. I use Instagram and FB to follow certain content (because it’s not here yet!) but am actually more averse to posting on them & supplying those corporations with content now that Steem & other viable alternatives are emerging.
I think we as content creators do have different takes on it though. I’m shocked at the number of comments on FB posts, YouTube videos, even online news articles! There are plenty of people who don’t classify themselves as “creators” but enjoy being active fans. I think Steem still has great potential to capture them in the future.
I agree the potential is definitely there. Except right now, every time I mention steemit to people I know in real life, I have to preface it with a long paragraph about how it actually works. :)
I have to disagree with your characterization of everyone here as being here to monetize content.
I literally have no interest in monetizing content. I'm not alone, although I probably am the very end of the pendulum's swing.
I think if this was just bloggers selling each other their blogs, it would never have been made. There are social media aspects to this site that attract folks more interested in substantive conversations than you might be able to engage in on Twatter, Fakebook, or in Youtool comments.
Should this platform further devolve into a cryptomining site, the ~10% YOY retention rate is liable to plummet. Your point is taken further, as we need more than consumers, we need consumers that aren't so unrewarded by Steemit that they actually stick around.
Thanks for the feedback. I think @jpgaltmiller makes the point that I was going to make, which is that for Steemit to be ultimately successful it needs to have good content and attract consumers. Yes, those that seek to make a quick buck will get weeded out, but I think if we can attract top notch content creators (Like with dtube) then their followers and viewers will come just for the content.
I agree with you. Steemit is not a social media site by anyone's stretch of the imagination. It's a blogging platform only and has always been that.
The majority of people on Facebook, Twitter, etc., could care less about making money online and would never want to spend time on a platform where most of the popular posts are about the platform itself.
The people who do arrive here and stay are here primarily to make money. Giving large businesses top exposure will just knock the little guys further down. It may raise the value of Steem, but if the little guys are making no Steem/SBD, it won't matter much to them.
Steemit must eventually become simply a central portal. Other and better platforms with their own SMTs are the future of STEEM and will fuel adoption of the token more and more.
DTube, as an example, will have it's own SMT when ready, and that will likely become a more largely adopted platform than Steemit itself. Others will arise and evolve. Some will fail, but some will thrive and eclipse Steemit.com in terms of "active" users. Steemit itself will grow, but as the gateway and central portal to everything else.
I think you've made some good points here, @joanaltres
Epic! Steemit IS the exact counter-model to advertisement.
But Sponsorship can be the vehicle for this thesis.
Nice project bro :)
Promising project !!
it's a benefit for this community
Thanks, lot of work left to do still.
Good continuation @zthomas
Steemit certainly does seem to be for the whales at the moment. I swear whenever I post anything it is a struggle to get it above a few dollars, if it got a little higher and I could control things like, how and when I post, I would be a more solid poster then I currently am. I also find it hard with the lack of engagement., and by that I mean I have a fair few followers now. but be damned if I can get anymore then a handful to enter into a meaningful dialogue about there post or my own. Makes it hard to keep on seeing the value in such a platform. Oh well what can I do but just keep on trying.
Agreed. But we’re still on Beta. I want to remain hopeful that some of these issues will be fixed without altering the core principles.
I’m a creator as well and, as you, I’m struggling to go over a few bucks. But I honestly don’t care.
I would truly hate it if this platform were to suddenly become filled with brands and companies sponsoring content.
I would leave immediately.
true, true. Ioften forget about it being beta still. I guess that gaining ground so slowly just frustrates be some times, maybe I should learn some patience and just focus on content and making a decent effort to connect myself with more people that I enjoy communicating with.
being swamped with brands etc would also grind my gears the wrong way for sure.
So as I mentioned in a previous reply, I would only be targeting a handful of enterprise clients.
IMHO, technically Steemit is already filled with tons of promoted content (through bot voting) lol
Yah, my biggest concern is actually the views per article. It's actually shockingly low for some of the top trending articles (like just a few hundred views, on youtube that's nothing). What's worse, there some posts with tens of thousands of views and hundreds of votes that only amounted to a few dollars because no whales upvoted them...
However, these are all fixable, and it's still very early